“We’re still inconsistent with things. Our penalties in this last game were down but two of those penalties were critical. We got better there but they are coming at the wrong time,” Culley said.
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To say that the Texans didn’t play well last Sunday would be an understatement.
Houston’s run game has all but disappeared since the teams season opening win against the Jacksonville Jaguars and it continued to be subpar against the Indianapolis Colts. The team rushed for 124 yards in total with Mark Ingram leading the team with 73 yards on 18 carries.
This again meant that Davis Mills had to be the focal point of the offense, and against Indianaoplis it did not go well for the rookie quarterback.
Mills finished the day 29-43 for 243 yards, averaging just 5.7 yards per completion while also throwing two interceptions to zero touchdowns in a 31-3 loss.
Mills wasn’t the only Texan who had a bad day, and head coach David Culley said the team has not made enough progress throughout the season.
“We’re still inconsistent with things. Our penalties in this last game were down but two of those penalties were critical. We got better there but they are coming at the wrong time,” Culley said. “I think our inconsistencies from that point see to be getting, especially on the road, at critical times that are hurting us, both sides of the ball, in continuing drives and stopping drives.”
The Texans turned the ball over three times and the defense had multiple lapses resulting in huge plays for the Colts in the loss, another area the Texans know they need to improve on.
“Well, how we are undisciplined starts with me, and that starts with what I just said. We’ve got to do a better job as coaches in practice of making sure that we’re focusing more, that our concentration is at a higher level,” Culley said. “It’s not at that level that it needs to be right now. In practice, we haven’t seen a whole bunch of those kind of things happening. It has happened, but we’re going to emphasize it more as a staff. We’re going to make sure they understand it more, we’re going to put them in those situations again and make sure that they understand how critical it is. And again, to change things, you’ve got to change. We have to do that moving forward in practice and making sure that we’re addressing that even more so than what we have been addressing it. Just emphasize it and let the process take care of itself.”
The Texans (1-5) have no room to be undisciplined this week as they will travel to Arizona to take on the undefeated Cardinals (6-0).
The Kyler Murray led offense of the Cardinals is averaging 290 yards through the air per game and 131 on the ground during their undefeated start and will be adding veteran tight end Zach Ertz to make an already strong offense ever stronger.
The Texans offense and defense will both have their hands full in the matchup, but the Texans know they need to find some way to make things a tough game for the Cardinals.
“There has been a continuation of, especially on the road, these things coming,” Culley said. “But what we do in practices, we come in and focus on that, put ourselves in situations where these things that are happening, we redo those things again, go over those things to make them aware of that, how critical it is to be able to do the right things in those situations. We just keep coaching and teaching that and it’s just on and on and on. It’s a process, and right now that process is not going as quickly and consistently as we want, and we got to get that better. We’re just going to keep working on that in practice every day.”